What was the first time that objects like a hammer and feather were tested to fall at the same rate in vacuum? I know it was shown during Apollo 15, but was the first time this was tested?
Also, why was the moon demonstration such a big deal, hadn’t everybody already seen it a classroom?
A vacuum in a classroom?
Dust does not discriminate.
Yes, it just a big tube with a pump.
The traditional “guinea and feather” classroom demonstration is cool, but not nearly as cool as a man on the freakin’ moon (!) dropping a hammer and feather out in the open.
I’m thinking that the Guinea (coin) and feather was a Toricelli trick. (1600’s)
There are some students…
Hardly the first time it was tested: they probably tried it only a few years after they learned how to create a vacuum. I saw an exhibit demonstrating in the Boston Science museum several years before we got to the moon.
It was impressive because there wasn’t any evacuated chamber.
I abhor that.
Naturally!